The Hunt

An Ancient Complex

30

JUN/12

Coming out of Jumpspace

Blue Shark 1 to the Michael Westin: We have your IDF, please follow the Beyon to the High Port. We see a split-screen communication with a normal Human and a Droyne, who introduced himself as Krayet. We followed him to the High Port – it took about a day.

Let’s get Roland to help us. His plan:
1) go to the high port
2) let’s get the Navy
3) then let’s interdict the down port
4) then let’s go find Tor and Hilda
5) We kill them
6) We take their bodies to Fran

Roland suggests we go to the High Port
The Crystal Roxy is docked at the High Port
The High Port was commanded by Lt Cmdr Riley Jones

Jim wants to take control of the Crystal Roxy. However, the Marines took control of the Crystal Roxy and they do not have Tor or Sam. The cutter is not at the High Port. The Marines have 3 former crew members. The crew say that Tor and Sam and “a couple of other people” went in the cutter. They got down to Home and the at that point the Imperial database of ship movements show the cutter is at the Scout Base at Home. Tor’s and Sam’s positions are not known at this time.

We told Riley about the potential for a hostage situation. Riley said he would sent three assault pinnaces to the surface to help secure Home. There are flying Droyne everywhere and even Droyne vehicles, which effectively jam our space

Home – the Downport is made of 5 areas
A downport
A maintenance area
A scout HQ
A university research center (cultural exchange)
A residential area

There is a connection to the largest Droyne Oytrip nearby via an aerial superhighway.

Home/ Ador Downport

When we landed, we locked the base down. Dean Illya Petrovich came out angry, asking why we are locking the place down. We took her to a secure area and told her what is going on about Tor, Sam, and Hilda. She hasn’t seen Hilda or Tor, and is angry about Sam’s kidnapping.

We found out the four people from the cutter got an air/raft and took off north to Yothvotdyo. We need approval from the Droyne Council to pursue off the Scout base and to see if they know anything that’s going on. Illya got us a meeting with the Droyne Council. We took some air/rafts to the meeting. (2 air/rafts + 2 police escort fliers)

Droyne High Council Chambers

The Droyne city was ringed by glass & steel towers hundreds of meters high with ledges for Droyne to alight. Then there was a residential ring, and finally a central forest area with the council tree in the center. We parked the air/rafts on a ledge in the tree.

The council chamber, called the Palyo, is in the middle of the meeting hall. The meeting hall is a large space with an entrance guarded by combat armor Droyne with Gauss rifles. The hall is lit by fire. There are cliques of Droyne standing around and we see a dais with three chairs:
Field Marshall Twoyrot
High Priest Pyao
High Leader Nisky

Illya did the introductions. Jim explained our needs— that two air/rafts of scouts are wanted for murder and treason, and asked for their cooperation. Nisky gives the loyal subjects schlemiel and offers cooperation. While we are talking, the oldest-looking Droyne we’ve ever seen comes into the room—he’s walking with a cane. The old Droyne speaks up, growing to a crescendo “Niksy you fool! You pledged assistance to the HUMANS? How many children have to go ?

“Deathless one! You speak to me when dealing with humans? You sat in this chair and made the Pyao will help you.

(The old guy never committed ritual suicide. If they don’t, they are usually obsessed with something that they believe is important enough to avoid the suicide)

Nisky offered the Grand Library. We asked for law enforcement folks to help us find humans mixing with Droyne. Nisky said sure but go to the Library.

The Deathless One’s name is Kiyo

The Library

We went to the Library.
Abnormal activity
Children leaving – we discover Children means the next generation, it’s not kids. Children leaving refers to Children leaving to join the Imperium.
High rates of crime or missing persons or fatalities
Hyper-secure areas
The old guy was the leader before Hilda: he was a pro-Imperium leader who helped boost the Scouts and helped the Droyne to build their own starships. His name is Kiyo

The Imperium were researching Droyne sites that existed before the nuclear war and that the deserts are nuclear wastelands.

As we are talking about this, a young Droyne appears— walking, hopping, and flying. He hands us a hand-written note. “It’s from the Deathless One.” The note says “Please follow the child. My heart is willing but my wings refuse to let me.” We followed the young guy.

Kiyo’s room is completely disorganized. He explained who he is (we already know). Kiyo was unimpressed with the general military guys. He schmoozed with Niar and was nice enough to the bureaucrats. “Well, you don’t know the whole story, do you?”

“When Hilda came here, 15 years ago or so… she asked the legend of Eskayloyt— which refer to the Lost Lands.” “Hilda constantly badgered me to talk about this place, left and right. This place is so radioactive that no Droyne ever goes there. It is the heart of the nuclear war that occurred 300 years ago. There is a desert on its north tip, a ring of mountains, and a forest in the center. As Kiyo talked about the Lost Lands, he mentioned that the term Lost Lands mean Vanished One in ancient Droyne. A long time ago, there was magic here and anyone who ventured here long ago would either die or come back insane. I think you should look here.”

We agreed. We got a remote link to the Micheal Westin’s sensors to look at Eskayloyt. The area is highly-radioactive. There is 75-100 yr old foliage. There is no sense of an Imperial dig here at all. The mountains look like they have been turned upside down (the sediments are inverted) There are some Droyne settlements towards the south and away from the radioactive desert— villages, deep in the woods and deep in the mountains. All, or a lot of the water, seems to artificially drain towards the south side of the island.

We looked harder at the lake and the place where the artificial drainage is going. The lake has two Oytrip with ~100 inhabitants each (fishing communities) but the drainage area has mountains and a volcano in the center with the water draining towards the volcano. We can’t fly to the island due to religious taboo and we will be stopped.

Kiyo’s son led Hilda to the island and never came back. Kiyo really hates Hilda. The son’s name is non-descript. We have his picture.

Ronald suggested a space-based insertion from the pinnaces (sub-orbital). Jim went back to the ship on a pinnace with Edward. We waited for them to get up there and undocked. Lt Cmdr Riley Jones was not very happy because this could start an interstellar incident. Ronald said we should go without permission anyway. Edward wanted to blow away all the sensors, but we conned him out of it. He decided to put down his annoyances by calibrating the guns.

From orbit, Jim was able to spot an overgrown ruined city. There are no inhabitants.

Sub-orbital assault

Niar flew in the pinnace along with a Marine ship’s gunner. We got in. Two Droyne fighters flew past us but didn’t see us. They came from the west, flew a pattern to the east (probably an ocean search pattern).Niar and the Marine gunner took off to fly CAS. Ronald, Otto and Brian made a perimeter and discovered that the lower level of the ruins has been cleared out (lasered?) and we can get in the lower levels. They found a bunch of Scout MRE wrappers as trash. As they went in and out of the buildings, they discovered they were at a college. They noticed there was a mixture of tech, some 300 yrs old and some a little bit older. They were in a history section with heavy-duty transparent enclosures that were intact despite numerous attempts to beat the cases apart. The characters used their comm units to translate the writing on the enclosures as “Museum of the Old/Ancient Ones.” This means they were researching ancient Droyne technology (no distinction between ancient Droyne tech and Ancients technology).

Brian noticed the university is heavy on science. They may have been unearthing something to reverse engineer it. Otto found a path leading away from the city towards the volcano. The path is relatively new. Jim scanned that area and Niar flew the pinnace up the path with the leg team. Jim couldn’t get a good scan . He suggested that the next mission should have atmosphere probes!

On the way up there, the ship took a fusion hit from the cliff face and we went down! Jim guessed that somewhere in the area was cammo netting. Niar piloted the ship to a safe spot and followed the normal exit procedures for a combat area (dump crypto, ruin hard drives etc). Otto estimated a 20-30 min trip up the side of the cliff.

They went up the face and guessed the approximate location of the fire. They didn’t come out of the foliage immediately but instead scanned the cliff face for abnormal features. As they started to go up, they heard a giant waterfall echoing throughout the entire area. Brian called out “Duck!” as Sgt Knox hit Otto on the head to force him down— all in the face of autorifle fire. Niar took glancing blows on his armor. We were all prone. Niar called for orbital fire support.

Edward blew away the cammo netting, an air/raft, and a bit of a body. Otto spread us out with the PCs in the rear. We got up there, it was like a big cliff area hanging out over the volcano ridge. Against the wall inside the cliff is a sealed steel bunker door. Outside there is an encampment with a fusion gun emplacement with the parts of two destroyed air/rafts. Just to the left is a bunch of rough-hewed entrances to the cliff face all at ground level surrounded by moss or little trees. The age of the entrances correspond to the time when Hilda showed up. The bunker door is a TL10 door, but it is pretty old. Otto said, “I suspect that this cavern goes to some Ancient tech and that Hilda created the other doors to get in— and that we will find what we want behind the doors.”

It looks like someone got in and put an Imperial security system. Ronald shot the door with his Gauss pistol and blew the metal plate off. He then stuck his hand in there and hotwired the lock. Otto was ready to blow the daylights out of anything with the PGMP.

Into the Complex

This hallway is twice as big as normal (maybe for flying Droyne). It’s dark and we can’t see the end of it. We noticed there is something accidentally buried there that is white and kinda shiney. He found a bone! Otto put it right back. He then saw a piece of an Imperial vacc suit by removing more dirt. It looks like a scout vacc suit of the model before ours— it has a bullet hole in it. The bone is probably that of a murdered scout. We eventually found 3 dead scouts and a dead Droyne. We collected the info for later. Our best guess on the Droyne is he is the Deathless One’s son.

20m in was a cave-in. The place is a mountain bunker. We reached another Imperial lock— which Ronald unlocked in the same way. We entered a wide, wide hallway. To the right was a bunch of cave-ins that block much progress. The left has a cave-in that might not block us off. We sent two marines to check out the blocked-off area. We checked out some rooms
a kiosk/student lounge
classrooms
We saw more casings, this time with skulls of different races. We saw Human, Droyne, and Vargr skulls along with posters to explain dissections.

We found more rooms with doors broken off their hinges either by time or effort. One room has a table with a divide between two seats and a table. The Droyne appear to be the most psychic.

We found another classroom. They were studying teleportation and telepathy.

We found a ramp that makes a u-turn and then up, and then a ramp that goes down. We went up. We found more classrooms. There is a periodic table on the wall. We found 5 extra elements, listed in Droyne as “vanishing elements.” We went into some office spaces.